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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Washington, D.C., in Bloom

How much can two people see -- and how far can two people walk -- in Washington, DC, in a day and a half?

Too much and too far, as Paul and I found out during our getaway last weekend.

OK, so I don't actually think we saw too much, but we did cram in pretty much all of the major attractions in our 40 hours in the city. But the focus of today's post is the reason we went to DC in the first place: the cherry blossoms.

Washington is all abuzz and abloom each year for the National Cherry Blossom Festival, this year from March 27 to April 11. More than 3,000 trees were a gift from Japan in 1912, and now the cherry trees line the Tidal Basin and other spaces near the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial.

Jefferson Memorial

No doubt the trees are beautiful. We got to DC at nearly the perfect time-- in fact, the peak bloom was only three days before we saw them. Even better, the weather also was nearly perfect -- warm and sunny.

Unfortunately, that combination meant that we were far from the only ones there. Very far. In fact, I highly doubt there's an infant in the DC metro area without a photo of them in mommy's arms, flowers in the background. The crowds didn't detract from the beauty, but they sure compromised the peace.

But no worries. A few thousand people here or there certainly wasn't going to ruin my weekend. And I could always take solace in a pint of something else that only comes around once a year: Capitol City Brewing Company's special Cherry Blossom Ale.